Reset!: Blackout
by Randomality
Summary: Cut off from the Speed Force, Impulse and Inertia cope with mundane life trapped with each other in Manchester. What is behind the outage and will they be able to restore the source of their powers? Sequel to Reset! AU.
1. Blackout

Disclaimer: DC owns the DCU. Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo.

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_**Reset!: Blackout - Chapter One: Blackout**_

_[Continued from Reset! -- After Max Mercury's disappearance into the Speed Force, Impulse allied with Inertia to defeat Rival and rescue their mentor. However, Max opted to stay behind, causing apprehension among the speedsters. The recent brief outages in the speedsters' powers are confirming their fears. The story now picks up in Manchester, Alabama, where Max's daughter, Helen Claiborne, is fostering the fastest boys alive. One is Bart Allen, the superhero known as Impulse. The other is Thaddeus Thawne, also known as Inertia, who is held under a form of house arrest until Meloni, Bart's mother, can retrieve him.]_

Bart yawned and stretched under his covers, savoring the warmth and comfort of his bed for a few long seconds. Morning light glowed behind his window blinds and he could smell Helen's coffee brewing in the kitchen. Just as he decided to hop out of bed and take a shower, he heard the bathroom door close and water rain down on the tub. He frowned and glared at his door. "_Grife_, Thad! Can't you _wait_? You don't have to go anywhere!"

There was no response from his "evil twin" in the bathroom. Bart grumbled under his breath and dug through his dresser drawers for fresh clothes in a blur. Where were the rest of his pants? He only saw two pairs left in the drawer, neither being among his favorites. They couldn't all be dirty. He did his laundry just recently! In an instant, he was dressed for another day at school. Taming his wild chestnut mop took a little more work and he didn't quite succeed. Stepping out into the hall, he gave the bathroom door an extra hard glare before meandering to the kitchen, ignoring the murmuring of Thaddeus talking to himself in the shower.

He finished his breakfast by the time Thaddeus strolled into the room with his damp golden hair slicked back. Bart immediately focused on Thad's clothes. "Hey! You're taking all of my pants!"

Thaddeus glanced down briefly and shrugged. "So? I don't have any of my own. What am I supposed to do? Wear my costume all day long? It's against Helen's rules."

Helen rinsed out her coffee cup. "Well, since we don't know when Meloni will show up to take you back, I guess we'll have to go out and get you some clothes of your own. By the way, Thad, you have to do your own laundry here. If Bart does it, you do too."

"I want my pants back," Bart demanded.

Slipping on her jacket and grabbing her purse, Helen reassured Bart, "You'll get your pants back after Thad washes them for you."

Just after Helen left for work, Bart picked up his backpack. "I'm gonna go get second breakfast at school. Later."

Thaddeus looked down at Dox, who wagged his tail and panted. "It's just us again." He slumped into a chair. "How many more days of mind-numbing boredom must I endure? I think I've been punished enough and I think I've proven that I'm not a threat." Dox just kept wagging his little tail. Thaddeus raised a pale eyebrow. "Even though Craydl was programmed to obey my _dear_ grandfather over me, it could hold a conversation and be useful. While you have some rudimentary communicative abilities, it's not the same. I could say the same of Bart." Dox barked and wagged his tail more. Sighing, Thaddeus drooped his shoulders. "I should stop talking to myself. It will become a bad habit."

Later in the morning, students filled the classrooms at Manchester High School. Bart's biology class was treated to a quiz to start the session. The short test was easy for him this time around. It was just another case of read and regurgitate. He waited a little while and stared out of the window. If he focused just right, he could see Carol in the reflection on the glass. She was still working on her quiz, along with the rest of the class. Ever since Thad showed up, he hadn't spent as much time with her, or any of his other school friends for that matter. Maybe they should all hang out after school soon? Or maybe he could finally ask Carol out on a real date? How were those supposed to work? Maybe he should call Kon and ask? Kon seemed to know a lot about that kind of thing. Was he staring at the window too long? He started pretending to work on his quiz and the teacher moved her hawk-eyed stare away from him. Problem was, it that it took her forever to move in his perspective. There was only so much of staring at the paper and slowly wiggling his pencil he could take. At least he sat in the back of the classrooms these days. No one could look over his shoulder and see just how fast he worked. As annoying as it was, hiding his powers had become much like a game of its own.

Finally, the teacher asked for the quizzes to be passed to the front of the class. Now came the hardest part: sitting through the teacher's droning. After a while, Bart lost track of where she was in a sentence. From there, he was clueless as to what she was saying. He leisurely doodled in the margins of his notebook just to have something to do. A quick glance to Carol told him that she was doing the same thing, but her doodles usually had something to do with the class. A long enough pause in the teacher's lecture gave him another chance to pay attention. The thought of the time he would get to spend with his friends between classes was the only encouragement he had towards staying in the room.

It was like that when he was in the thirtieth century lab, he recalled. His memories of the place were hazy and distant, despite the very few years since he left it. However, he went through game after game, knowing that he would be rewarded with a visit with Grandma Iris. When was the last time he visited her? Maybe he should drop in on her soon? He wanted to tell her about how life was in Manchester and how Thaddeus was adapting. Bart still didn't quite understand why she couldn't have been his guardian, or why she stayed away so much. He knew the reasons, he had heard them all, but he still didn't agree with them. At least Helen wanted him to stay, even though Max was gone.

The bell rang and the teacher dismissed her class. Bart shoved his binder and books into his backpack and hoisted it over his shoulder. Or he tried to. The next thing he knew, Preston and Carol were kneeling over him and the teacher was telling people to back away. Since when did she talk so fast? The hollowness he keenly felt gave him the answer. His speed was gone again.

Bart sluggishly stood and brushed the dust off of his clothes. "I'm okay."

The teacher had her hands on his shoulders to steady him. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's happened before."

The teacher grew more worried. "Have you been to a doctor about it?"

Bart shook his head. "No."

"I wish we still had a school nurse," the teacher muttered.

"I'm okay," Bart repeated. It wasn't quite the truth, but what else could he say to her? In any case, she didn't look convinced.

Back at Helen's house, Thaddeus read through the instructions on the inside of the washing machine lid, the detergent bottle, and every tag on every item of clothing in the laundry basket. "Wash separately." He tossed that shirt to one side. "Like colors only." This continued on until he had several piles of clothes arranged neatly around him. One pile was for whites, another for blues, another for blacks, one for a lonely green shirt, and the "wash separately" pile owned the countertop. "How inefficient," he muttered to himself, "Washing one item at a time is a waste of water." Then again, what else could he expect from such a primitive time period?

His vision blacked out and he grabbed the washing machine for stability. It felt as if the bottom fell out of his world. He knew this feeling all too well now, but it had never been as bad as this. He staggered away from the laundry and into the kitchen to sit. After few minutes of adjusting to the world catching up to him, he tested his legs and returned to his laundry. As he started the washing machine Thaddeus wondered how long this outage would last.

Just after he loaded the largest pile of clothes into the wash, the phone rang. He ignored it, as he was instructed to. If it were important, the caller would leave a message on the answering machine. When the ringing stopped, Helen's voice echoed from the kitchen. "Thad? I just got a call from the school. Bart passed out in class and I'm going to go pick him up. I'll be home soon."

When Helen returned home with Bart, Thaddeus was waiting in the kitchen with a smirk on his face. "You passed out?"

Bart scowled and stomped off to dump his backpack and jacket off on his bedroom floor. Thaddeus snorted, still sneering. Behind the blond boy, Helen sighed harshly. "When were you boys going to tell me that you were having trouble with your powers?"

That wiped the twisted grin off of Thaddeus's face. "What could you do about it?" His answer came out more snidely than he intended, to his chagrin.

"That doesn't matter!" Helen retorted, "If there's something wrong, _tell_ me! At least then I'll know that there might be another reason why either of you boys don't come home on time! I worry about you when you're not here. Both of you." Her shoulders dropped with a softer sigh. "I need to get back to work. Keep an eye on your brother, Thad. Don't let him out of the house until I get home, even if your powers return. If anything else happens, call me."

Thaddeus gave a curt nod. "Understood."

As soon as the door shut behind Helen, Bart skulked out of his room and flopped down on the couch. "This sucks," he grumped, "I hate being slow and I hate having to make stuff up."

"You mean lie?" Thaddeus clarified, "That's easy. All you need to do is tell people what they expect to hear. You should be used to it by now with the secret identity matter."

"That's the problem!" Bart flung his hands up into the air. "I can't tell anyone that I'm a speedster or the real reason why I blacked out! I couldn't figure out what to say and now the school asked that I go to a doctor and get checked out! I've never been to a doctor! Not like the kind that everyone else goes to! What if the doctor figures out that I got powers? I know that there aren't medscans here like in the future, but they still got ways of finding stuff out, right?"

"Maybe you should go." Thaddeus paced from one end of the living room to the other. "Either if this particular outage lasts long enough or if there's another one that is convenient. If your medical records confirm that you aren't a speedster, then that should help you maintain your separation of identities."

"_Grife_," Bart swore as he reached for a videogame controller. "I hope the Speed Force stops glitching soon." In a sudden change of mind, he dropped the controller and got off of the couch. "I'm gonna call Wally. Maybe he's mainlining it and that's why we're cut off."

When Wally unsurprisingly did not answer his phone, Bart called Jay, only to find out that all of the speedsters were out of power. After hanging up, Bart called out to Thad, "It hit everyone." He sighed and crossed his arms. "I'm gonna make some lunch." Pausing on his way to the pantry for inspiration, he noticed the neat piles of clothes. "Um, I think you're taking the laundry sorting thing a little too far, Thad. That's not the way Helen showed me how to do it."

Carol led the way to Bart's house after school. Preston, Mike, and Roland - otherwise known as Rolly, trailed after her, all a little uneasy. Mike seemed the most agitated. "What if there's something wrong with Bart's heart and no one knows yet?"

"Or it could just be a case of low blood sugar," Carol tried to reassure, "He's probably fine."

Dox was the first to notice company arriving, signaling to Thaddeus that he should disappear. Silently, he darted to his room and closed the door. "It's just Carol," Bart remarked after glancing through the window. "Oh, the guys are here, too." He shut off his game and answered the door.

Thaddeus could hear the commotion from down the hall and through his door. Bart managed to convince his friends that he was fine. "I had some lunch and felt a lot better," he added.

Mike relaxed and sat down on the couch. "So, it probably was low blood sugar or something."

Bart shrugged at that, not wanting to add anything more to the answer. As much as he wanted to tell the truth to them, Max's training managed to stay firm.

Preston set his backpack down on the floor and dug through it, producing a sheet of paper. "Here, I wrote down what you need to do for homework."

"Thanks." Bart accepted the paper half-heartedly. Staring at the list, his shoulders drooped. "This is gonna take forever."

"Tell me about it," Preston slumped onto the couch. "It's like they think we don't have anything to do after school."

Carol pushed her glasses higher on her nose. "Want to get it done with? The sooner it's done, the sooner we can do other stuff."

"Homework?" Preston reached into his backpack for his binders and books. "Yeah, sure. Let's get it over with."

Mike grinned and sat up. "This is why Carol gets A's all the time."

When Helen returned home, she found that she had a full house in her living room. Books and papers were scattered all over the coffee table and floor. Two open bags of chips and several open juice bottles added to the chaos. After polling her guests to see how many of them were planning on staying for dinner, Helen meandered to the pantry to look for inspiration on what to feed her hungry teenagers. "Who left a pile of clothes on the floor?" she called out to Bart.

"Thad," Bart called back.

Carol's head jerked up and the rest of the group looked at Bart in confusion. "Who?" Preston asked.

Bart opened his mouth to answer, but it hung on an awkward, "Uhhhh..." He cast a frantic glance to Carol for help.

She gave a shrug. "Might as well tell them. Your mom hasn't come to pick him up yet."

"Okay," Bart answered, "Thad's my twin brother. He's staying here until Mom gets him."

Jaws slackened and eyebrows rose around the coffee table. Preston was the first to find words. "You have a _twin brother_? When were you gonna tell us about _that_?"

Bart shrugged again. "I dunno. He's not staying here for long, anyways."

Rolly leaned forward. "So, what's going on? I mean, you were sent here to live with your uncle. You have a mom, but you don't live with her. Now you got a twin brother who gets to go with her, but you don't? That's all kinda messed up."

"Yeah," Bart agreed, "I don't think about it much." He stood up and stretched. "I'm gonna tell Thad that he can stop hiding now. He's probably getting hungry and he's supposed to make dinner tonight, anyways."

As soon as Bart disappeared down the hall, the other boys turned their gazes to Carol. "So, what's the deal?" Mike asked, "I mean, he's obviously told you more than us."

"His family is really messed up," Carol admitted, "_Really_ messed up. I'm not sure if I _can_ explain it."

Bart returned with Thaddeus sullenly following after him. The blond boy gave a short wave and ducked into the kitchen. Preston tilted his head. "He's blond."

Carol flipped through the pages of her textbook, already getting back to work. "Twins don't have to be identical."

Helen's voice was audible from the kitchen, "It's _fine_, Thad. The oven temperature doesn't have to be exact like that. You can stop playing with the knob."

"You need at least digital control on this," Thad stated.

"Yes, yes, I know. I'll get around to it later. Now leave it alone."

Bart sighed. "He's always like that." He shoved a handful of chips into his mouth and tried to finish his homework.

Later, around a crowded table, Helen listened to the chatter of her guests. Thaddeus was quiet, but she expected that. Then Preston asked a question, "So, where is your mom going to take you?"

"Tokyo," Thaddeus simply answered.

"Yeah," Bart chimed in, "She has a really nice place there in a tower."

Rolly perked up. "Wow, what she do there for work?"

Bart and Thad exchanged glances. Neither had a good answer at hand for that. Bart shrugged, "I dunno. Stuff."

An awkward silence descended on the table. Carol cleared her throat, "So, when is Thad leaving?"

Thaddeus gave a succinct answer, "Whenever Mom gets here."

After dinner was finished, Bart saw his friends to the door and bid them all goodnight. As he started cleaning up the mess left in the living room, he jerked to a stop. "I forgot!"

Darting out the door, he pounded the sidewalk to catch up to Carol. "Wait!" he called out to her as he closed the gap. He stuttered a little before finally saying, "Wanna go out later? Like _go out_?"

"Like a date?" She was already smiling.

"Yeah!" Bart nodded eagerly, shaking his wild mop. "Do you wanna?"

Carol squeezed him in a hug. "Of course I would! Friday?"

"Sure! Um, but if my speed doesn't come back by then, we'll have to stay in Manchester."

"It sounds fine, Bart. Let's keep it simple this time."

"Okay! We'll go out on Friday!" He started to jog back to his house, but paused a few steps in. "What if there's a crisis or ninjas attack?"

She laughed. "We'll deal with it."

Bart grinned and bounced back home, cheering to himself. This was going to be awesome! Once he was inside the house, Bart picked up the phone and called Kon, hoping that it wouldn't just go to voicemail. He grinned when a live Kon answered with a distracted "Yeah?"

"Hi, Kon! It's Bart. I asked a girl on a date and I don't know how those are supposed to go and since you go out with girls more, I thought you could help me figure it out."

Kon was quiet for a moment. "Wait, what? You want my advice on how to take a girl on a date?"

"Yeah!"

"Um, well, I..." Kon fished for words a little longer before replying with, "Dinner and a movie is a classic. Wait, who are you going out with? Is she a normal girl or is she in our realm of weird? Please don't tell me it's a gorgeous alien girl with cute face tattoos. I think I would experience rugged, manly tears of woe if you managed that."

"She's Carol," Bart answered, "You met her the last time you were at my place."

"Cute girl with the glasses and the sweet figure? Yeah, I remember her. Um... Oh, that can't be good. Can I call you back? I gotta take care of something."

Bart could hear the screeching roar of some new monster in the background. "Okay." Bart hung up and stared at his phone in disappointment. Now what?

Thaddeus leaned against the doorway with crossed arms. "You're pathetic," he sneered in Interlac.

"Sprock off," Bart retorted in kind, "At least I have friends."

Blond eyebrows rose in surprise, and then furrowed in a scowl. "I don't need friends," Thaddeus grumbled as he sulked away.

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_A/N: I'll try to keep these fics to shorter story arcs, rather than do one epic fic._


	2. Rainy Day

Disclaimer: DC owns the DCU. Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo.

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_Reset!: Blackout - Chapter Two: Rainy Day_

The days passed by surprisingly quickly for Bart and it was Friday before he knew it. Homework went from a nuisance to a major timesink. He found himself spending more of his free lunch time working on it with Carol and the rest of the gang, at her insistence. When the weather permitted, they worked outside on the picnic tables under the trees.

"You gotta pay the toll!"

Bart turned towards a set of doors leading into the school, where a group of three older boys were blocking the path of a younger and smaller boy. With a set jaw and a sigh, Bart remembered encountering the toll from when he was new to Manchester. He hadn't seen much of the toll since then, but then again, it did lead to a fight involving the entire student body.

Carol looked up from her notebook, wondering what had grabbed Bart's attention. Seeing the blockade, she groaned. "Oh, not that again. I thought they stopped that."

Pushing up from the rickety wooden bench, Bart strode towards the boys. Carol dropped her notebook and rushed to his side. "Bart! What are you doing?!" she hissed in a whisper, "You don't have your speed!"

"I know that," he replied, "But that kid needs help." He shrugged and continued onward.

The toll boys spotted Bart approaching them. "Allen!" one of them called out, "What do you want?"

"I want you all to stop taking tolls," Bart answered, "Let that kid go through free."

The smaller boy stared up at Bart with wide eyes, while the older boys glared down at him with contempt. "Yeah, and what are you gonna do about it?" the lead boy spat.

Carol piped up from behind Bart. "Extortion is a form of harassment, genius. Under school policy, you could get suspended for it."

The lead boy curled his lip back in a sneering grin. "So, you all are gonna tattle to the teachers, is that it? Weak." As he spoke, the smaller boy tried to sneak past the blockade, but was shoved down.

Carol darted forward and helped the smaller boy to his feet. "You jerks!" she snapped at them, "You all think you're tough, but you push little kids down! That's what I call weak!"

"Hey, Allen," the lead boy drawled, "You better shut your bitch up before I do it for you."

The solid crack of Bart's knuckles connecting with the lead boy's face echoed off of the brick face of the school. Carol's jaw dropped as chaos erupted in front of her and Bart disappeared behind a wall of backs and swinging arms. One by one, the taller boys went down, until only Bart was left standing.

"That's all you all got?" he asked with genuine incredulity, "You guys are _sloppy_ and _slow_!" At least they were in comparison to his spars with Thaddeus.

The smaller boy darted out of Carol's grip and waved to Bart. "Thanks!" He swung the door open and slipped into the school, free of charge.

Carol pulled Bart away from the defeated boys. "Bart! You're bleeding!" She shoved Bart towards Preston and Mike, who were standing nearby. "Get him cleaned up before class!"

Preston grabbed Bart's backpack along with his own, as he and Mike whisked Bart away to a bathroom. Bart's bruised and scraped knuckles stung under the running water. His left eye was already swelling shut and his nose was bleeding. "Huh, I guess they did get a few good hits in," Bart mused as he tended to his injuries, "I couldn't block or dodge all of them at once at the beginning."

Preston handed a few paper towels to Bart. "Do you still have all your teeth?"

"Yeah, I think so." He prodded his lower lip with his tongue, feeling out the swollen part. "This feels weird. Like there's a rock in there."

Mike cast an anxious glance towards the door. "Man, you could get in trouble for that fight. Why'd you hit 'em first?"

"They threatened Carol," Bart answered, "That made them bad guys even more."

"It was awesome," Preston grinned, "You took out three upperclassmen! Boom, boom, boom, like that! Once I saw what was happening, I didn't have enough time to get my camera."

Mike shook his head in disbelief at Preston. "That's because I dragged you with me! When your friend is in trouble, you don't stand back and film it! You go help him!"

"Bart had it covered," Preston defended.

"Yeah!" chimed Bart, "It's not like I've never been in a fight before."

Mike crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "That thing where you got the whole school to fight on the football field doesn't count."

"I guess decking that one guy who yanked a chair out from under you doesn't count either," Preston added, "We broke that one up before it turned into a real fight."

Bart checked the blood-spotted paper towel he held to his nose to see if the bleeding had stopped. All of his other fights had been while wearing the Impulse costume and he couldn't tell his friends about those. "Yeah, I guess so." It looked like the bleeding had eased up. "I spar with my brother every night. Does that count? He kinda needs it."

The bell summoning the students to class rang through the hallway outside. Preston handed Bart's backpack to him. "Good luck trying to explain your face without getting in trouble," he said with a cringe, "I don't think the "I fell" excuse is going to work."

Mike gestured to Bart's injuries. "You could say you got hit in the face with a basketball or something."

Bart slung the bag over his shoulder and pushed the bathroom door open. Maybe he could just go home? No, Thad was there and he didn't want to listen to his evil twin berate him about getting bloodied in a fight. Head drooped, he darted into class, hoping that the teacher wouldn't notice him. A thick curtain of chestnut hair fell over his face and he kept his head down throughout the class, taking the most thorough notes ever in his short school career. Every so often, he felt out the swollen part of his lower lip with his tongue, wondering when it would feel normal again.

The last bell of the day brought relief and Bart wove through the herds in the hallways. Eddie was the first to spot him. "Heard you beat up Jimmy and his jerks," he grinned, "Not bad." His single functioning eye widened when he saw Bart's shiner. "Whoa! He actually hit you good!"

"Yeah, so?" He was not in the mood for talking with the notorious delinquent, friend of a friend or not. Bart pushed the exit door open and stepped out into the schoolyard.

Preston caught up to them and cast an ugly glare towards the boy with the eyepatch. "Hey, are you trying to pick a fight with Bart, too?"

Eddie scowled at him. "No, wuss-wad. Do I look stupid?"

"Do you want me to answer?" Preston shot back.

Mike and Carol joined the group and Eddie retreated. Bart kept walking home, hoping to add some distance from the hostility that had built up behind him. All he wanted was to raid the refrigerator and play some videogames. He could still hear the brisk conversation past the thuds of many footfalls. Now that the words flowed quickly, it was hard _not_ to follow what they were saying.

"Eddie's not that bad," Bart added to the dialogue. "He doesn't hang out with a lot of good people, but he's not that bad. Rolly thinks he's okay."

"Rolly doesn't exactly have the best judge of character," Preston pointed out, "He lets people push him around and talk him into things. Eddie just takes advantage of him."

They soon came up to Helen's house and Bart split from his friends. Carol called after him, "I'll see you tonight!"

Bart waved at her as he strode down the sidewalk to the front door. Dox was eagerly waiting for him just steps inside. Dropping his backpack and jacket on the floor, he knelt down to rub behind the terrier's ears. Looking up, he noticed a considerable lack of evil twin in the house. Oversized feet paced down the hall and a quick glance into the bedrooms revealed nothing. The kitchen was likewise vacant. Stepping into the garage, he finally spotted his brother. "Thad? You working on the timepod again?"

Thaddeus did not look up from the alien circuit cluster he had pulled from the white sphere. "No, moron, I'm playing with a tesseract puzzle." His voice dripped with condescending sarcasm. "What else would I be doing?"

Bart held up his palms and turned away. "Oookay. Forget I asked." Somebody was in a crabby mood again and that somebody was not going to get a sandwich.

When Bart put his crumb-sprinkled plate in the dishwasher, he heard the door to the garage swing open and click shut. Thad's quiet steps barely registered to him and it wasn't until the surly blonde was leaning on the counter that Bart took notice. "What?"

Thad crossed his arms and leveled an even, analytical stare at his brother. "Isn't this "dating" activity a matter of courtship?" he asked in Interlac.

Bart wasn't sure what Thad meant by that. Matching Thad's Interlac, he answered, "I don't know."

"You think that Carol may be a suitable mate?" A pale eyebrow arched. "Are you sure that her genetics are optimally compatible?"

With a grin that sat somewhere between amused and disturbed, Bart answered, "I'm just going out with her. It's not like I'm going to marry her. Grife, Thad, you're weird."

"So, if it's just a matter of companionship, then that would explain why Helen is dating Mr. Singer." Thaddeus nodded to himself in growing comprehension. "She doesn't like being alone."

"She's going to be going out tonight, too," Bart reminded, "You'll have to make your own dinner."

A little while later, Bart finished washing his face in the bathroom. Looking up from the sink, he saw his brother's reflection on the mirror. "You need to go?" Bart asked, still speaking Interlac.

"So, you are attracted to Carol because of the companionship she provides." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Yeah, I guess." Bart shrugged, not sure of where this conversation was going. "She's my best friend! I like hanging out with her and doing stuff with her and having adventures with her. I'm happy when I'm with her and I love her." He raised an eyebrow inquiringly. "What's with the interrogation?"

"Nothing, just curious."

"Uh huh, sure." Bart treated Thad to a lopsided grin. "You're _thinking_ about something, aren't you? And you can't tell me that it's because you're trying to learn about this time period, because I know better. You posed as me for plenty long enough to know how things go around here." Suddenly, his grin turned sly and he bounced out of the bathroom, chanting in singsong, "Thad's got a girlfriend! Thad's got a girlfriend!"

Offended, he sharply rebuked, "I do not!"

"Suuure," Bart teased, "I was wondering what you did when no one was home."

"I do not! I rarely ever leave this house! How could I possibly have a relationship with anyone?"

"I dunno. Internet, maybe?" Catching the momentary widening of his brother's eyes, Bart's grinned widened to near manic levels. "I was right!" A quick, bubbling laugh ripped through the air as he danced around the room. "I was right! Thad's got an _internet_ girlfriend!"

Thad's faced reddened with anger and the edge of his voice lowered into a growl. "I do not! Shut up!"

Bart stopped cavorting and planted his hands on his hips. "Grife, Thad. Lighten up. It's okay if it helps you to not be lonely."

"I'm not lonely!"

"You talk to yourself in the garage and in the shower. You talk to Dox all the time. You get lonely just like anyone else does."

"I do not talk in the shower!"

"Yeah, you do." Bart started for the door. Switching back to English, he told Thad, "We can argue about this later. I gotta go meet with Carol."

Bart grabbed his jacket and darted outside, letting his long strides carry him along the familiar path to Carol's house. The dark overcast sky threatened rain and it started to sprinkle when he knocked on her door. Carol shrugged on her jacket and picked up an umbrella before shouting back to her brother, "I'll be back later!"

Bobby's voice carried from the kitchen, "Don't stay out too late!"

Carol rolled her eyes and pushed her glasses up higher onto her nose. "We'd better hurry before it pours on us."

Bart's shoulders slumped and he sighed. "I can't do that."

"_My_ sort of hurry, Bart," she reminded, "You can do that."

Yellow eyes stared at her for a moment as he tried to decide if she was serious, and then Bart took her hand and started off at a run. Even at her fastest sprint, Carol struggled to keep up with him. Finally, she called out for him to stop so she could catch her breath. "Maybe not that much of a hurry," she panted. After her regained her breath and began walking along the street again, she remarked, "You're not even breathing hard at all after that!"

"I wasn't running _that_ fast."

"Oh, Bart. Even without your powers, you could probably give the track team a run for their money."

"Really?"

"Really, especially considering that you're a junk food and videogame addict." She reached out and rubbed her thumbs under the purple bruise around Bart's eye. "That still doesn't look good. It'll take a few days for that to heal."

"A few _days_?!" Bart cringed, "It'll take that long?" A fat raindrop splashed down on his nose. Glaring up at the sky, he frowned, "Aw, grife. Now we're gonna get wet."

Carol smiled and opened her umbrella. "No, we won't." She stood close to Bart and held it over both their heads. "See? One of these would never hold up for a speedster, but for us slow folks, it works just fine."

With an arm around each other's waists, they walked along the street, as the drum of rainfall against the umbrella grew faster and louder. Bart paused to stare at the curtain of water falling around them. "Wow, the rain looks so _different_ now." He grinned to Carol, "Kinda hypnotizing."

It took far longer than Bart expected to walk to the movie theater, but he also discovered that he didn't mind it. All the while, he was close to Carol and they chatted along the way under her umbrella. The rain eased from a downpour to a steady shower, making it easier to hear each other. The choice for films at the small theater was not stellar, so they picked whatever was running that seemed the most interesting. Bart paid with the money Helen had given him for the event. With a big bucket of popcorn between them, they settled into a sparsely populated theater and sat back for the show.

Halfway through the movie, Carol looked around at how few people sat in the theater. All were sitting in rows in front of them. Pulling the empty popcorn bucket aside, she leaned over to Bart and gave him a kiss in the dark. He grinned, realizing what she was up to and liking it. The last time they did anything like this, it was under far different conditions. But this wasn't the closet in the thirty-first century and Carol wasn't about to be taken away from him. There were no tears or bittersweet kisses. Eventually, one of the other theatergoers turned around and barked, "Dammit, kids! Keep it down back there! Some of us paid to actually watch this movie!" Luckily, it was too dark for anyone to see them blush and cringe.

After the credits rolled, they stepped out into the rain again and walked to a chain restaurant. It made the cut, since it wasn't fast food, but it allowed minors in. It was far busier than the theater tonight and full of the murmurs of many conversations. Bart used up the rest of his money on dinner, but walked out of the restaurant sated.

Halfway to Carol's house, Bart blew a breath into the air and watched the steam billow and dissipate. "Y'know, nothing happened tonight."

"Nothing happened?" Obviously, Bart was going by a different set of definitions than she was. "What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing _bad_ happened," he clarified, "No aliens, no monsters, no supervillains, no ninjas... There should have been at least ninjas."

"Welcome to the _normal_ world, Bart," Carol teased, "Where not every good thing is spoiled by something outrageous like that."

After Carol finally disappeared behind her front door, Bart glanced up at the dark, rainy sky. "Huh, gonna get wet." With that, he sprinted back home. Inside the living room, he found Thad sprawled out on the couch, reading a book with Dox sleeping on his legs. Only a slight tilt of the head was Thad's acknowledgement that Bart had returned.

"Hey, Thad! Guess what?" Bart started enthusiastically.

Thad's answer was terse. "I don't want to hear it. Go away."

Bart frowned at that for a moment. His annoyance evaporated when he grabbed his phone. "Hey, Kon! Guess what?"


	3. Coping

Disclaimer: DC owns the DCU. Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo.

* * *

_Reset!: Blackout - Chapter Three: Coping_

Helen leaned back in her chair and put the phone to her ear. Wally's voice greeted her from the other side. "Hi, Helen. I was just checking up on the boys."

"Bart and Thad are doing fine," she answered, "They're adjusting. Not too happy about it, but they're coping. What about you?"

"Actually, I'm starting to like all of this time off," Wally admitted. Helen could hear the sheepish grin through his voice. "The day job is a little boring, but it keeps me busy. The best part is that Linda and I have more time together."

"How is she?" Helen hadn't heard much from Wally's wife since she suffered a miscarriage.

"Doing good. She got a new contract for her show here in Central City. We're living off of her income and putting all of my paychecks into savings. We're living pretty comfortably now." He chuckled at that briefly. "She's talking about having kids again."

Helen smiled and sat up a little taller. "That's wonderful! The two of you can't let what happened stop you from having a family. Trust me, you only have so long before the chance passes you by."

"Yeah, I know. It doesn't stop me from worrying that we'll have a repeat or worse, though." A quiet pause interrupted the conversation. Helen could tell that there was something Wally wanted to talk about, so she waited. Finally, he spoke, "Time's catching up to Jay. Without the Speed Force, he's sliding downhill pretty fast. It's not like he's sick or anything. It's just that he's so _old_."

"It's hard to watch," Helen remarked, remembering how quickly Max deteriorated when he was cut from the Speed Force. "Hopefully, his link will reestablish soon. He'll bounce back when that happens."

"It's been almost two months, Helen," Wally reminded, "I got nothin' on what's going on with Speed Force. STAR Labs can't even figure it out. Jesse's given up on it, but she has other abilities to fall back on." Wally blasted a sigh into the receiver. "Whatever's wrong is inside the Speed Force itself and we can't even touch it."

"Then we just have to wait and see what happens. I'm sure that everything will work out in time," she reassured. After a silent pause, she changed the topic. "Wally, Bart said that you were the one who managed to get him the identity papers he needed to enroll in school."

"Yeah, I had to pull a few strings to do it, though," he answered.

"Could you do it again for Thad? His mother still hasn't come to pick him up and I don't want to leave him cooped up in the house all the time. He doesn't like the idea of going to school, but if he's going to be here indefinitely, he needs to go through the system enough to let him build a future for himself."

"I'll see what I can do." There was some rustling in the background as he reached for a pen and paper. "I.D. for Thaddeus Thawne. Does he have a middle name?"

"I don't know, I'll ask and get back to you on that."

"Okay."

A commotion in the backyard grabbed her attention and she saw Bart and Thad duking it out again. "Oh, for the love of... Wally, I'll call you back. The boys are really at it, this time. I swear, Thad needs to get out of the house and get a life and Bart needs to stop antagonizing him."

Marching out of the back door, Helen planted her hands on her hips and barked, "Boys! Get over here!" Bart and Thad paused in mid-fight. Thad had a fistful of Bart's hair and Bart was giving Thad a wedgie. "What are you two fighting over now?!" When they didn't answer, she shook her head and clutched at the broad white streak in her dark hair. "You don't even know?! Get in here and go to your rooms!" The boys let go of each other and sulked past Helen. "I swear, you two, if you were girls, I would be blaming hormones for these outbursts." That prompted both boys to hunch down lower on their way to their rooms.

A couple of weeks later, a large envelope landed in Helen's mailbox. Whatever it was, Wally had sent it. Inside was a set of identity papers for Thad: Birth certificate, immunization records, and a few school records, including some notes that Thad had been homeschooled by his maternal grandfather since the second grade. Helen chuckled as she sorted through the papers. "Oh, Thad is going to be so mad at me."

When Thaddeus came in from the garage for dinner, Helen slid the package to him. "Here, you're set for our time, now."

He flipped through the pages with a scowl deepening on his face. "What is all this for? I don't need these."

"Your mother still hasn't come," Helen reminded him, "And there's no telling when she'll show up. So, these are to help you integrate while you wait."

"Integrate." The word came out with a suspicious sneer. "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm enrolling you in school." Helen braced herself for the tantrum she was sure to follow.

"School?! No! Absolutely not!" Thad stormed, "I do not need to go to school! My education has already surpassed what it can offer me!"

"Then test out of it, genius," Helen rebutted, "Apply to get a GED at the community college. I don't care what you do, as long as you satisfy the education requirements set by the State of Alabama in the twenty-first century. I don't need a social worker visiting my door and asking why you're not in school."

Thad glared at the papers and clenched his fists. "If I pass some tests, I won't have to go, correct?"

"That's right."

"Then I will take those tests."

On the day the Thaddeus was scheduled to the take the tests, Bart came home from school to find his twin sulking at the kitchen table. "Uh oh, what happened?"

"I excelled in Math and Science, as expected," Thad replied, "But I was inadequate in English and Social Studies. My knowledge of history before this time period was not adequate, as well as literature. Obviously, there are different priorities given to what is studied in those to fields than what I had anticipated."

"Carol says you just tell the teachers what they want to hear in those two subjects and you get a good grade," Bart remarked as he slid into a chair. "She's right."

"Grife," Thad swore, "My brain will atrophy and leak out my ears."

"It won't be _that_ bad." Bart was grinning and trying not to laugh, even though he was trying to help Thad feel better. "Mom can show up at any time. This will just keep you kinda sorta busy for a little while. Maybe you'll even make some friends and have a little fun." Bart noticed a few papers on the table and pulled them towards him. "Hey, you even got a schedule! Aw, we don't have any classes together."

"Good."

"That means that we can't work on our homework together." Bart pouted at that. "Well, I still got Carol and the guys helping, so that's okay." Then he straightened up and grinned. "Hey, you gotta come hang with us at lunch on your first day, okay? We can help you figure stuff out!"

"I went to school when I posed as you," reminded Thad, "I know my way around."

"Oh yeah, that's right." Bart slid the papers back to his brother. "Well, you gotta come hang with us, anyways."

Thad was not thrilled with the idea either then or on his first day at school. Once the lunch period started, Bart found him and pulled him by the arm to the table his group claimed. The group greeted the newcomer and went back to their previous conversations. Thad observed the group, remembering when he used to hang out with them while posing as Bart. None of them knew about that, so he couldn't try the old jokes that had made them laugh before.

With a mischievous grin, Bart flicked the wadded candy wrapper at Preston, scoring a hit on his arm. Preston's confusion only lasted a moment and he flicked the wrapper back. The exchange went on for a few minutes, evolving into a game where each boy would try to flick the wrapper through the "goal" that the other made with his fingers. Thad watched this for a while with a frown and furrowed brow. "Was this what you were trying to do when you hit me with those things?" he finally asked his brother, "You were trying to get me to play with you?"

"Yeah," Bart answered as he flicked the wrapper through Preston's goal.

"Why didn't you say so?"

"Because you were too busy yelling at me and trying beat me up for it." Bart shrugged and set up a goal for Preston. "After a while, I just figured that fighting _was_ your play."

Thad's eyes widened with realization. He knew about games and how to play when he fooled everyone into thinking he was Bart. All around him were other people his own age. They talked, laughed, played games with each other, and enjoyed themselves despite the drudgery around them. Why couldn't he do it as himself?

A cluster of girls at another table tittered and giggled while looking at him. "Omigod! Is that Bart's brother? He's cute!"

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards, but pulled back into a scowl as he listened to them further. _'I'll always be compared to Bart. Defined by Bart. That inferior...'_ Angry yellow eyes shifted towards Bart in a seething glare. He squeezed them shut and let a long breath slowly slide. _'I can't go back to that. I can't let our _dear_ grandfather win. I'm not a pawn. I'm not a dog.'_ The bench under him settled when Carol sat down next to him.

"Thad? Are you okay?" Warm brown eyes behind the lenses of her glasses reflected her concern.

"I'm fine." He got up from the table and picked up his backpack. "I'm going to the library. It's quieter there."

The school's library was indeed quieter and Thad spent the rest of the lunch period browsing the shelves. Some of the books were severely outdated, even by early twenty-first century standards. To Thad, it was almost like reading texts from when people thought the sun revolved around the earth. He drifted to the literature shelves and sifted through the various genres that were crammed together. It seemed like no time at all passed while he was among the books and the bell soon rang to tell him to go to his next class.

Later in the evening, Helen dropped a booklet on the table in front of the boys as they ate dinner. "Here, I want both of you to read this."

Thaddeus picked up the booklet. "Alabama Driver Manual?"

Bart leaned over to look at it. "Serious? Driving?"

"Both of you have to read it before I take you in to get your learner license or give you any lessons," Helen dictated, "You're both legally old enough to start learning. Even if you get your speed back, it's something you should know how to do." She poured a fresh cup of coffee, before sitting down at the table again. "Thad, you should be glad I got you enrolled in school. That's one of the requirements to get the learner's license. The rest of the papers are the same ones we needed to get you in school in the first place."

"Fake papers," Thaddeus remarked while flipping through the booklet's pages. "Bart and I are engaging in identity fraud."

Helen sighed and shook her head. "And you two used to be vigilantes," she reminded, "You're also from a thousand years in the future."

Bart glanced at the clock and pushed away from the table. "I'm gonna be on the computer," he announced.

Tonight, he was going to hang out with his Young Justice friends online. Cassie had arranged to whole thing well in advance and badgered Tim and Kon into getting the game that they were going to use as their medium.

Bart logged into Warquest Online and went through the character creation process. "Don't blow your identity," he repeated the warning from Cassie to himself. Before long, he had a long-haired male ranger ready to go. What to name him? He pulled up the random name generator and clicked through until he got enough elements to come up with Stormrunner Quickbow. Now to go find Cassie in the beginning zone, who was under the name of Sophia Shieldmaiden. The raven-haired warrior stood under a tree, dressed in the Grecian-looking beginning armor. "Hi Cassie!" he sent to her.

The private reply was quick and terse. "Bart! What did I tell you?"

"Sorry!" After a pause, he added, "How'd you know it was me?"

"A guess," Cassie answered. A few clicks later and they were in a team together.

A brawny male priest by the name of Ralph Healsalot approached the group. "Hey everyone."

From his seat at the computer, Bart stared at the screen in confusion. As soon as Ralph was added to the team, he sent on the team chat channel. "Who are you?"

"Cissie," was the reply.

"Why are you a boy?"

"Because I wanted to do something different."

Bart spoke to the screen aloud, "Okay, Cissie, you're being weird today, right?"

A dark-skinned female necromancer with royal purple hair and sporting the name Idu Vudu joined the team. That had to be Anita! Soon after, a scantily clad female mage also joined. Bart furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at the name on the screen. Who was Elissa Hottie? Three responses on the team chat admonishing Kon for his choice in character name gave him the answer. He added his own text to the session. "Why are you playing a girl?"

"They look better," Kon answered, "Did you look at the girl mages?"

"No. Why would I?" Sometimes, Kon was weird too.

"Boobies!"

Bart wasn't impressed with the answer. "You're weird." He took stock of all of the team members and noticed that they were one short. Aloud, he wondered, "Where's Tim?"

Soon, an elegant female enchantress by the name of Luna Spellbinder joined the party. "Hi everyone."

Bart sent his greeting on the team chat. "Hi, Tim. Why are you a girl?"

"They looked better," Tim replied.

"You're weird too."

An hour later, Thad approached Bart and leaned over his chair. "What is this?"

"A game," Bart answered, not letting up on his rapid ranged attacks. Cassie's warrior was surrounded by monsters, getting healed by Cissie all the while. Kon's mage was flinging firebolts, Anita resurrected the dead monsters to serve her, and Tim was busy with buffs to his friends and debuffs to his enemies.

Thad squinted at the characters on the screen. "Is that the rest of Young Justice?"

"How'd you know?"

"A few giveaways," Thad remarked, "Superboy especially."

"But he's a girl in here!"

"Exactly." He watched the virtual battle continue. "Is this some sort of training exercise?"

"No," Bart answered, "It's just a game."

"It could be a training exercise."

"There aren't any speedsters and nobody can fly in this game."

Thad crossed his arms. "That doesn't matter. It's about tactics and teamwork."

"It's also about having fun." Bart's character followed after Cassie's onto the next battle.


	4. Black Eye

Disclaimer: DC owns the DCU. Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo.

* * *

_Reset!: Blackout - Chapter Four: Black Eye_

One cool morning, Bart bounded to his waiting friends outside his door. "Guys! Guys! Look! I got my learner license! Look!" He held out the little card for them to see.

"About time, Bart!" Carol ribbed, "Are you going to be taking Driver's Ed this summer?"

"I guess. I dunno," he shrugged. He didn't much like the idea of taking any sort of class during the summer.

Preston spoke up, "I already took that class. As soon as my dad gives me the okay, I'm gonna get my graduated license."

Mike shoved his hands into his pockets and walked alongside Preston. "Why do you have to wait for his okay?"

"It's just when he thinks I can pass the test," Preston answered, "We're gonna be taking a weekend trip to my grandparents and I'll be driving that. He'll probably let me take the test afterwards." Preston turned towards Thaddeus. "Did you get your learner's too?"

"Yes." Thad still didn't see why going through the bureaucratic process was necessary for him. After all, he did not intend to stay in this time period.

Later in the day, Bart squirmed in his seat and tried not to look at the ticking clock. Whenever he did, he found that it was still far too long until the passing period. Finally, he raised his hand and got excused to go to the bathroom. Stepping into the nearest boy's restroom, he paused and looked at the mess that was left inside. "Somebody had fun with the toilet paper," he quietly remarked to himself as he surveyed the room. The urinals were all plugged up with tissue and only one stall was useable. Not amused, Bart decided to just move on to a different restroom, rather than discover what sort of surprise waited for him in the last stall.

The next restroom was already full with six boys pounding on someone that Bart couldn't identify under the crowd. Without a second thought, he began pulling the boys away from their target and slamming them against walls and stalls. Under the pile, he found Eddie curled up in a tight ball. His eyepatch was missing and he was already sporting some ugly bruises and scrapes.

Bart didn't have time to ask what was going on before the boys he had pulled away regrouped to face him. Seeing their faces now, he recognized a couple of them some of the wannabe gangsters Eddie used to hang out with as "Evil Eye". "Hey, didn't you two drop out?"

"You should have stayed out of this, Allen," one of them growled.

Instinctively shifting his stance, Bart retorted, "You're not supposed to be here."

"Neither are you."

Behind Bart, Eddie was staggering to his feet. "Get out of here, Allen."

The pack of boys clustered tighter together to block the way to the door. Without his powers, Bart was trapped in the restroom. In the next instant, they surged towards him. Bart dodged and blocked when he could, but there were too many of them for him to fight off at once. He was pinned against the wall by a hail of fists and feet. Some of the pressure suddenly slackened and he risked a peek towards Eddie, who had pulled two boys away and was swinging at a third. Bart lashed out, taking a few hits as he grabbed one boy and shoved him into another. He pushed another boy into a stall and snapped a hard kick to his gut, sending him into the toilet. After knocking the rest down for the moment, Bart grabbed Eddie's arm and yanked him out of the bathroom.

Retreating as fast as they could limp, they made it to the school office, where Bart reported the dropouts and the fight in the bathroom. Once his story was told and the burden of action was passed on, Bart collapsed in a chair and winced. Pulling up his pant legs, he surveyed the bruises and scrapes earned from the kicks.

Eddie offered him the office box of tissues. "You might wanna clean up your lip."

Bart pulled a tissue and dabbed it against his lower lip. Sure enough, there was blood on it. "We're in trouble, aren't we?"

Eddie shrugged and accepted the cold compress from the office aide. The middle-aged woman then offered a compress to Bart. "From what you said, it was self-defense against some people who weren't supposed to be here. You won't be punished for that."

Listening to the conversations that hummed around the office, Bart learned that the entire school was now in lockdown and that the police had arrived. For the time being, Bart and Eddie were ignored while the search for the other boys continued.

Eddie moved the compress from one injury to another. "We need a tub full of ice, not these stupid little things," he grumbled.

"That would help with the hurting all over?" Bart asked.

"That's what I've heard."

"Sounds really cold."

"That's the point." Eddie shifted the compress to some sore ribs. "This is the second fight you've been in this year. Where'd you learn to fight more than one guy at once?"

Bart shrugged and answered before he could think, "Used to do it all the time."

"In the school you went to before you came to Manchester, right?"

Eyes as wide as his beating would allow, Bart froze for a moment. "Uh, yeah. That's right."

"You suck at lying, Allen." Eddie's blue eye settled on Bart for a while, studying him. Bart tried to busy himself with tending to his injuries. After a while, Eddie asked, "So, what happened? You get tired of it or something?" Bart's shoulders slumped and he stared at the floor. What could he say? He didn't want to confirm anything to Eddie. Not here, surrounded by school staff. Eddie wasn't satisfied with the silence. In a low whisper, he murmured to Bart, "Y'know, I was there when Rolly was editing that movie you guys made. That was one helluva quick change. One frame you were there and the next there was Impulse. Rolly didn't know what to make of it. We were wondering about you, but then you came up with that story and Rolly believed you. So did I." Eddie chuckled. "Maybe you're not so bad at lying, after all."

Looking for a change of subject, Bart asked, "So, why were those guys beating you up?"

Now it was Eddie's turn to stare at the floor. "I'll tell you later."

Bart decided to let the matter go for the time being. "I still gotta use the bathroom."

Not that Eddie told before he was led away from the office. If he did, it was to the police when they took him into the private conference room. Bart likewise gave his statement and went back to class after the lockdown was lifted. After school, Bart looked for Eddie, but the boy was nowhere to be found. Rumors flew that he went to the police station because he was involved in a gang initiation or that he went to the hospital because he was badly hurt. Either way worried Bart. It wasn't until Rolly told him that Eddie simply went home early that he found any relief.

During the evening, a knock at the front door heralded an unexpected visitor. Helen stared at the athletic young man standing on her stoop with a backpack slung over his shoulder. "Kon? What are you doing here?"

"I was in the area," he answered with a charming smile for Helen, "I thought I would drop by and see how Bart was doing."

"Well, today hasn't been one of his best days, but I'm sure he'll be happy to see you. Come on in." Helen stepped aside and let Kon enter. "He's in the kitchen."

Kon's grin dropped when he saw a battered Bart sitting at the table with a few icepacks. "Bart! What happened?"

"Six guys," Bart answered, "Without my powers, I can handle three, but six is too many."

"And this math lesson has been brought to you by the letters "O" and "W"," Kon cringed while turning a chair around to sit on it backwards. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just a little sore." Shrugging, he sighed. "I think I also blew my identity to the kid I was helping."

Kon's jaw dropped. "What? _How_? You don't have your powers!"

"It was _because_ I took on six guys," Bart answered. Sheepishly, he added, "Well, that and a few other things in the past. He was kinda on to me to start with."

"Great." Kon rested his scruffy chin on his folded arms. "This is why I don't keep a secret identity. Way too much stress and work. On top of that, I don't want to deal with the spandex soap opera angst with the girls."

Bart tried to raise one thick eyebrow, but winced and gave up on that gesture. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, your girlfriend knows about Impulse, so you don't after worry as long as you stay with her," Kon began, "But if you two ever break up and you trying going out with another girl, you'll have to figure out a way to explain why you keep disappearing and all the weird stuff that goes on around you. When you get your powers back, that is. Then there's the whole keeping secrets from her thing, which girls don't like. So, you end up with one big mess."

"Oh." Bart wondered why that kind of scenario sounded familiar. "I think I read about that kind of stuff in my comic books." He frowned as best as his split lip would allow. "I didn't like it when Max said I had to keep being Impulse a secret."

"Well, you got a family of sorts to protect," Kon pointed out, "I don't."

Helen reentered the kitchen with Thaddeus following after her. "Do you want anything to drink, Kon? We have juice, milk, iced tea, and coffee right now."

"Coffee, thanks."

Bart scowled. "Hey! How come he can have coffee and I can't?"

Kon grinned broadly, "Because you're you and someone would have to be crazy to give it to you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Thad answered with a smirk, "That you're a hyperactive brat who would just get more destructive when introduced to sizable amounts of caffeine."

Bart glowered and crossed his arms. "Shut up! I am not!"

Thad lifted his chin in victory. "See? Hit the mark. I'm right."

Helen set the cup of coffee, as well as the sugar bowl and the carton of creamer, in front of Kon. "Thad, what are you making for dinner? Tonight's your turn."

"I don't know. We have a guest! That blew my plan!"

"Then let's modify it," she suggested, "We can always add things to a meal to fill it out." When Thad set a couple boxes of "Shells and White Cheddar" pasta on the counter, Helen opened the freezer and pulled out a half-emptied bag of frozen broccoli and a bag of frozen peas. "There, we can add that and..." She pulled a plastic container of leftover ham from the fridge and added it to the ingredients on the counter. "We can chop this up and put it in, too. We also have some biscuits in a tube you can bake. Easy enough?"

Bart piped up, "Add bacon, too."

Thad shot Bart a dirty look. "_Enough_ with the bacon!"

With as of a big grin he could manage without reopening the split in his lip, Bart quipped, "Everything tastes better with bacon!" Kon snickered into his coffee, and then Bart leaned towards him over the table. "Have you ever had tomato pie? It's awesome! Helen got the recipe from Mrs. LaCaire next door. She puts triple bacon in it!" Eyes twinkling with mischief, he chirped at Thad, "Bacon!" Thad's fists and jaw clenched and tension tightened his shoulders. Bart tucked his legs under his chair, planting his feet on the ground and priming his legs. "Baconbaconbacon!"

Twisting around in fury, Thad pounced at Bart, but his brother bolted out of his chair. "Bacon!" Bart crowed, "Baconbaconbaconbacon!" He kept repeating the word as Thad chased him through the house. Dox caught on to the excitement and followed after, barking all the while.

Helen heaved a resigned sigh. "Bart! Thad!" she dutifully rebuked, "Stop it and get back over here!" Both boys returned to the kitchen. "Thad, you have dinner to make. Bart, stop antagonizing your brother. Seriously, you two should know better."

Kon chuckled as Bart settled down at the table. "Man, I kinda missed that."

"Missed what?" Bart asked.

"You driving people nuts," Kon answered, "Inertia's not Rob or Wondy, but he flips out pretty fast."

Thad snarled at Kon, "They don't have to _live_ with him."

Helen leaned close to Kon and whispered, "Don't anger the person making the food."

"Right, point taken."

She sat down at the table with her own cup of coffee. "So, what have you been up to, Kon?"

"Oh, same old stuff. Fight the freak of the week, save the day, impress the ladies."

"Bart said that you were looking for a place of your own," she remarked, "Any luck?"

Kon's grin faded. "Not yet."

Bart sat up with a puzzled expression. "So, where are you playing Warquest at?"

"Ti-,er, Rob's place," Kon admitted, mindful that there were non-Young Justice members present, "He installed it on his dad's computer and I crash over there for the night. As far as his dad knows, I'm Carl Grummet from school. Rob even makes me show up in geek gear." Kon sighed and scratched at his jaw. "Sad thing is, his dad is all excited that Rob's finally inviting friends over. Seriously, the Bats are socially crippled."

Bart propped his head on his hands. "Why don't you ask Superman to help you find a place to stay?"

"He wants me to stay with his parents and do the whole secret identity thing and go to school." Shaking his head, Kon added, "Like I said, secret identities are more trouble than they're worth to me. Same with school. I've done the undercover-as-a-student thing and I don't see where actually sitting through the classes is going to help me."

Amused, Helen stirred her coffee. "I'll tell you what I told Thad. Test out of it, if you can. If you fail the test, then go to school. If you pass, get your GED and go from there."

Kon smirked at Thad, remembering a bit of news that Bart had passed on to him. "Is that what happened? You failed the test?"

"I'm from a thousand years in the future!" Thad snapped over the stove, "There are different priorities in history and literature then!"

Kon opted to take Helen's advice and not anger the one making his food. "Then there's the whole lack of birth certificate and social security number because of the grown-in-a-lab thing. I can't get a legal job to pay for my own place."

"Why don't you get papers made?" Bart asked, as if it were a common task.

"Rob offered to get me set up, but I would have to make a secret identity for it." Blue eyes stared into his coffee. "I don't want my daily life to be Carl Grummet or some other dweeb disguise. I'm Kon-El and I'm awesome. Why would I cover that up?" With a lopsided grin, he sighed, "It's not like I'm an alien or anything. I might as well have "Made in the USA" stamped on my butt. Cadmus just never bothered to set me up to pay taxes. I guess they figured I was going to be their grunt to the end and wouldn't have to take care of myself. That's what I get for insisting that I have the choice to make choices."

"You're starting to get mopey, Kon," Bart warned, "C'mon, let's go play some videogames while we wait for food."

After dinner, Helen asked Kon, "Do you have anywhere to stay for the night?"

"I was thinking of dropping in on Ma Supes and abusing her hospitality again," Kon replied.

"How far away is that?"

"A few states over."

Helen shook her head. "You don't have to fly in the dark, Kon. You can stay here tonight. I'll get Max's bed set up and-"

"I can sleep on the couch," Kon interrupted, "It would be weird to sleep in Max's room."

Helen thought this over for a moment, and then nodded. "All right. I'll get some blankets and a pillow for you. The boys have school tomorrow, so they can't stay up too late."

"Thanks." Scratching at his itchy jaw, Kon eyed his backpack. It was sitting where he left it by the couch. Could he wait until morning? After a while, Kon decided that he had enough. "This is what I get for skipping shaving for a couple days." He picked up his backpack, "Where's your bathroom?"

Bart showed him the way. "If you want a shower, I can get you a towel and stuff," he offered.

"Really, all I want is to get rid of this stubble," Kon told him, "It's driving me nuts."

Flicking on the bathroom lights, Bart remarked, "I'm glad I don't have to deal with that."

"Yet," reminded Kon. "Just wait a year or two. Even Rob's working on the peach fuzz." He glanced at the bathtub's shower fixture. "Y'know, I'll take you up on that shower offer. I don't need to contaminate Helen's nice couch with any more of my man-stink than I have to."

Bart turned towards the linen closet. "You're weird, Kon."

"Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment," Kon grinned.


	5. Cover

Disclaimer: DC owns the DCU. Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo.

* * *

_Reset!: Blackout - Chapter Five: Cover_

Kon really didn't want to get up, but he could hear the household waking up and starting their day. He could hear Helen's coffeemaker already brewing a fresh, hot pot of dark roast. He could hear Bart and Thad arguing over the bathroom. He could hear Dox panting just under his head. Prying open a sleepy blue eye, he shifted on the couch to look down at the terrier. "What?"

The dog trotted away to greet Helen, who was dressed and almost ready to go to work at her dental clinic. "Do you want out?" she habitually asked. Dox barked and turned a few tight circles in response.

Kon lifted a hand. "I got it." Turning, he craned his head up to spot the front door. Touching the wall, he muttered to himself, "Through the wall, into the door, turn the lock, open the latch, pull the door, and we're done!" The front door seemingly unlocked and opened on its own, confusing Dox. The dog looked up at Helen for reassurance.

She escorted him and closed the door once he was through. "Nice trick. I don't recall _that_ being a Superman thing."

Kon sat up on the couch and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Tactile telekinesis was the best thing the scientist that made me could come up with for mimicking Big Blue's major powers." He ran his hands through his messy black hair. "Now, if I could just get the non-tactile part of the telekinesis to work more often, that would be awesome." Dropping his hands into his lap, he grinned, "I don't think that was supposed to be part of the big plan. Laser-eyes and super-senses are supposed to be in there somewhere, but I can't get those to work at all."

Helen wasn't sure what to say about that. "Well, we all make do with the cards we're dealt with. As it is, you have more gifts than most."

"That's what I keep telling myself," Kon absently remarked. Getting up, he meandered to the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. "Come to papa, my sweet, life-giving brew." Once it was full, he stepped aside for Helen. He blew a little steam off the top of his cup and savored the first sip.

"Where are you going to go today?" Helen asked while filling her travel mug.

"I'll just fly up to Metropolis and make a nuisance of myself. There's probably some crisis or other that needs my magic touch. If I'm lucky, Supes will be out of town with the JLA on some intergalactic road trip. If I'm really lucky, they'll take Bats with 'em and Rob will have a free evening for me to torment him. If I'm extra special lucky, Wondy will give me a call saying that she's lonely and her mom is out of town." His eyes widened, and then he gave a lame grin to Helen. "Don't tell anyone I said that. That's what I get for yapping before I get my complete infusion of wakey."

Bart popped into the kitchen doorway, still sporting ugly bruises from the day before. "If Cassie was lonely, she'd call Cissie first."

Clutching his coffee cup, Kon closed his eyes and stretched a very happy grin across his face. Helen gave a disgusted snort and admonished him, "Super-perv!"

That left Bart confused and he stepped closer. "But he didn't say anything."

"It's not what he said, it's what he was thinking," Helen explained.

Bart became only more confused. "You're a telepath? When'd that happen?" In his mind's eye, she looked weird in every spandex costume he could think of.

"Oh, it's just one of the many awesome moon powers that I, Princess Helitra, wield as the amazing Moon Girl," she announced, "Now, if you all will excuse me, I have to battle the intergalactic threat of the Gingivitians and the Cavitars to save the universe."

After the door to the garage shut behind her, Bart crossed his arms. "It's okay, Kon. I think she was joking."

Raising an eyebrow, Kon remarked, "I think that's a safe bet."

"So, what were you thinking about that Helen didn't like?"

Kon solemnly clapped a hand on Bart's shoulder. "Someday, you'll understand."

"It was dirty, wasn't it? I'm old enough!" Another thought seized him. "Oh! I haven't shown you this!" Bart pulled his wallet from his back pocket and opened it. Proudly displaying his State of Alabama Learner's License to Kon, he beamed, "Look!"

"Cool," Kon automatically replied. The permit really didn't mean much to him. He pulled the card closer to read the descriptions. "Hazel? Your eyes aren't hazel. Hazel are the eyes of that foxy barista in Metropolis. Yours are obvious, unnatural-for-humans yellow. Maybe teetering towards gold, depending on lighting. _Not_ hazel."

Bart stared at the card. "Huh. Well, that's what the lady entered. I wonder if Thad's says the same thing?" Without a pause, he sought out his brother's wallet. A few minutes later, Bart returned. "Yep. His say hazel, too."

Kon didn't seem very interested in that. Holding up a half full bag of bagels, he asked, "Can I take one?"

"Sure." He watched a couple bagels slide into the toaster. Leaning against the counter, he mused, "I wonder when my powers will come back. I heard Helen tell Wally that he should think of it like a vacation, but this is the most boring vacation ever. I haven't seen Tim or Cassie or anyone else, except for you, in all this time. We don't even know why we lost our powers and I hate not being able to do anything about it."

"And you feel useless, too," Kon stated as he rummaged through the fridge. "I know what _that's_ like. When my powers went out, I didn't really know what to do." He set the opened packages of cream cheese and lunchmeat on the counter. "Can I use these?" After Bart nodded, he added, "What about tech substitutes to tide you over? Like that stuff I used for a little while?"

Bart shook his head. "The only thing I can think of is Velocity 9 and that stuff is nasty. Makes you go crazy. If there's anything else, I don't think that anyone would give it to me. Wally, sure. He's the Flash."

"You know what sucks the most about losing our powers? For us? We're not like Cassie or Anita, who didn't start off with powers, and we're not like Tim and Cissie, who _don't_ have powers. I was _made_ in a lab to have them and you were _put_ in a lab because of them. Without them, we're kinda lost." Kon leaned towards Bart. "But that stays between you and me." The bagels popped up and Kon started spreading a layer of cream cheese on each open half. "At least you have Helen and a nice home here. You don't have to worry about where to go."

Thad entered the kitchen and treated Kon to an especially dirty glare. "You're still here?"

"I just wanted to see your sunny face again," Kon replied as cheerfully as he could, "My day couldn't start without a burst of joy from the ever-inspiring Inertia." He was unfazed by the disgusted sneer Thad treated him to. Kon's voice resumed his normal tone, "Seriously. Don't you have any modes other than "up yours" and "sideways"? You're going to die a lonely virgin if you keep this up. Yeah, I get that your childhood was stolen by a madman and all that, but you're preaching to the choir here. Dude, get over it. _We_ did."

Thad's glare darkened and he clenched his fists. Lunging forward with a punch, he stopped just short of striking Kon. Shaking with fury, Thad backed away and left the kitchen. Kon snickered and finished making the bagel sandwiches. "He almost hurt himself, there."

Bart sighed and leaned against the counter. "He's gonna need to spar today and I'm all beat up already."

Handing one of the breakfast sandwiches to Bart, Kon frowned, "You don't have to be his punching bag."

"I'm not a punching bag," he countered. Taking a bite of the sandwich, he added, "I hit back."

Thad reappeared in the kitchen, shrugging on his jacket. "Your friends are here."

"Already?" Bart turned to Kon. "I gotta go. Lock the door after you leave, okay?"

Hastily putting on his jacket and slinging his backpack over his shoulder, Bart hurried after his friends with the rest of his bagel clamped in his mouth.

As he walked towards the school with his classmates, Bart paused in mid-step, furrowing his brow. What was the sound? Was it a sound at all? A growing, reverberating hum, it was somewhere between the thresholds of hearing and feeling. An electrical tingle teased his skin. Then nothing. It simply stopped. Carol touched his shoulder and whispered to him, "Bart? Is everything okay?"

Snapping back to present world, Bart nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just thought I heard something."

Thad jerked his head towards him. "You, too?" Before Bart could reply, Thad cut him off, "Later."

At lunch, Eddie found Bart and pulled him aside to talk privately. "I need your help. You know about my dad?"

"What, that he's some wannabe metacriminal? Yeah, I know about that," Bart answered. Eddie's father had once called himself the Transparent Weapon and tried to make a living off of crime. He wasn't very successful.

"Yeah, those punks from yesterday wanted his invisibility tech," Eddie finally admitted, "They've been after me to get it from him for a while now. I'm not gonna do that, but there's this new guy that's running the gang now and he's gonna have me killed if I don't. You could take him out." He snapped his fingers. "Just like that."

Bart shook his head. "I can't."

"If you don't help me, I'll tell everyone who you really are, _Impulse_," Eddie threatened.

Bart felt his heart pound a little harder, but what could he do? "I can't. I'm sorry. I don't have superspeed."

"Fine, if you're gonna be like that," Eddie sourly scowled. He approached the Bart's friends gathered at their usual picnic table outside and announced, "Bart is Impulse!"

Bart's jaw dropped and connection between his brain and mouth jammed from all of the responses that he wanted to give. Confirmations, denials, and excuses all ran at the same time, leading to incoherent stuttering. He saw Carol cringe and suck in a breath. She was probably desperately trying to come up with a cover. Preston and Mike exchanged questioning looks, and then burst into laughter. The rest of the group soon followed. Only Rolly seemed to hesitate and take Eddie seriously.

It took a little while before Preston could finally speak. "Yeah, right. Impulse has redder hair and talks differently than Bart."

"Also, Impulse can speed heal," Carol pointed out, "If Bart really were a speedster, his injuries from yesterday would have disappeared within minutes."

"Yeah!" Bart chimed, pointing to the bruises that still marred his face. "These would be gone by now!"

Eddie frowned, obviously not liking this development. "But... You look like him! I only have one working eye, but I'm not blind. Hair, height, _feet_..." He gestured at Bart. "When Impulse replaced you in the movie, there wasn't any real difference! And then you saved me, like Impulse did before!" Eddie's gestures became more frantic. "You have to be him!"

Bart shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "I'm not a speedster. Sorry, Eddie. I wish I was." It was the honest truth, now.

"Besides," Carol added, "Bart was sitting with me and the guys when Impulse stopped at the school to get a drink from the water fountain a few months ago. Not even the fastest boy alive can be in two places at once."

Bart had to think back to remember what Carol was referring to. "Oh! Right! Yeah, I remember that now." Really, it was Thaddeus wearing the red and white costume with a wig, but Bart wasn't going to reveal that.

Preston added in, "And then there was that time that Impulse shaved his head. If Bart was Impulse, then why didn't he lose his hair, too?"

Defeated and confused, Eddie turned towards Bart. "But, you... You..."

"Sorry," Bart repeated, feeling a little bad for Eddie. Shoving his hands deep into his pockets, he addressed his friends, "Guys, Eddie's in trouble. That's why he wants to find Impulse."

Rolly was on his feet in an instant. "Is it those guys who pounded you yesterday?" Even though the rest of the group was not fond of Eddie, they were all interested and concerned.

Eddie scowled, "I don't want you wusses getting in the way." He stalked off with clenched fists.

Bart watched him go, wishing that he could something more. If he just had his speed back... Maybe he didn't need it. His hand found the cell phone in his jacket pocket. It would be nice to have a few superpowers to back him up, though. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom," he told his friends.

"Don't get beat up this time," Preston called out after him.

Bart waved the comment off and left the group behind. As soon as he found a quiet spot, he pulled out his phone and called Kon. After listening to the voicemail prompt, Bart left his message. "It's Bart. I got some trouble here and I kinda need some help."

Seeking Thad out, Bart found him in the library, talking with a couple of upperclassmen girls. Bart pulled him aside, much to Thad's annoyance. "I'm going to need some help. Eddie's-"

"Not my problem," Thad interrupted, "I don't care what's going on."

"Look, getting beat up was just the start of it. He's-"

"Not. My. Problem." Thad turned away from Bart. "If he got himself into it, he can get himself out of it. This is a waste of my time."

"It's not a waste of mine," Bart retorted, "I'm going to help him. I just wanted you to back me up." The bell to class rang and he left the library.

Carol intercepted him on the way to class. "What are you going to do about this?"

"Help Eddie," Bart answered, "I'm not sure how, but I'm working on it."

"We'll figure something out," she assured. Then she warned, "Don't rush ahead without me."

Bart and Carol searched the school grounds for Eddie the moment the last bell rang and class was dismissed for the day. They nearly gave up until they spotted a familiar head of spiky blond hair getting pushed into a car. Bart switched gaits into an easy lope, trying to get a bearing on the car. It pulled out of the parking lot and he dropped his backpack to speed up into a full sprint. He could hear Carol calling out after him, but he didn't want to lose track of Eddie.

Pounding pavement and dodging traffic, Bart chased the car, never quite gaining on it. Fortunately for him, it didn't speed through the streets of Manchester and it didn't leave the city limits. The park near the river wasn't very popular at this time of year and that was where the car stopped. A group of people were already there and waiting. Bart counted eight in all and then added the three that got out of the car with Eddie. Most of them were at least a couple years older than Eddie and not students at the school. They were pushing Eddie around roughly and Bart could hear the angry, threatening tones in their voices, but he couldn't quite make out the words. He crept closer to hear better and to place himself in a better position to rescue Eddie if the situation turned worse.

The gang leader wanted Eddie to steal the invisibility tech from his father outright. Eddie refused. "Even if you got it, Impulse is gonna catch you as soon as you try anything with it."

The gang leader laughed. "Didn't you hear? Impulse is dead! Right along with his old man! There ain't anyone left to catch us here!" He turned to his subordinates. "I think it's time we gave this worm another lesson in loyalty." The mob pounced on Eddie and Bart moved in to defend him.

The last time Bart had faced this many people who were at the same speed he was, he was fighting Savitar's army of speed ninjas. At that moment, a switch clicked in his head and he grinned. Jumping into the fray, Bart fought the gang off of Eddie, starting off with cracking heads into each other. Strong arms wrapped around his shoulders from behind, but Bart kicked out with his powerful legs at the hitter coming for him. Stomping down on the instep of his captor's foot freed him and he whirled around with a punch. Doing so meant that he couldn't avoid the incoming hits from two of the gangsters who closed in on him. Out of seemingly nowhere, Thad charged into the melee. A savage smile stretched across his face with wicked glee and he held back nothing in his strikes. In short order, the balance of the battle shifted and all of the thugs were on the ground.

The gang leader got up and pulled out a gun, pointing it straight at Eddie. The three boys froze, staring at the weapon. Bart wished that his powers would suddenly reappear. He reached out for the source of his powers, willing for the hum of lightning to run through his blood again, but there was no response. The leader pulled the trigger, but the hammer of the gun stayed firmly in place. Suddenly, the gun simply fell apart in his hand.

"Awww, did I break your toy?" Kon mocked behind him. His hand was still on a nearby tree.

"Superboy?" Eddie gawked from the ground. Bart held out a hand to help him up.

"Why, yes I am, good citizen!" Kon replied with his cheesiest imitation of Superman, "Now, run along, while I take care of these evil-doers."

Bart supported Eddie as they escaped from the park. Thad stalked beside them, keeping watch for any ambushes. Bart grinned at him. "You came."

"Max wanted us to take care each other," Thad reminded, "Letting you get pounded into a smear is a violation of those orders."

"Thanks."

"Carol's mad at you. Just a warning."

"Mad at me? For what?"

Carol was waiting for Bart at his doorstep. In addition to the backpack hanging from her shoulders, she held a backpack in each hand. As he approached, she heaved his backpack into his chest. "I told you not to rush ahead without me!" Then she thrust the other backpack at Thad. Freed of the extra burden, she marched home.


	6. Burst

Disclaimer: DC owns the DCU. Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo.

* * *

_Reset!: Blackout - Chapter Six: Burst_

Helen came home to an unusually quiet house. Where were the sounds of her wards arguing, of the dog barking, and of a videogame playing? She found Thad in front of the computer, playing solitaire. Her gaze darted to the taskbar. Email and instant messenger were minimized in a hasty attempt to hide the active sessions. "Internet girlfriend again?"

Thad exploded with denial, "I do not have an internet girlfriend!"

"Internet boyfriend, then?"

Confusion interrupted his rage and he stared at Helen, not quite believing his ears. "What? _No_!" Distaste added another layer to his befuddled expression. "What?"

"Just asking. You can never know, these days." Helen held up her hands defensively, "Not that I'm saying that you look the type. I was just covering the bases."

Thad was still confused. "What?"

"Nevermind." Helen waved the matter away. "How was school?"

"Boring, as usual," he answered, "A couple of girls tried to rope me into drama club. They tried to sucker me into Mock Trial a few weeks ago, too."

Helen was surprised to hear this. "Why don't you join?"

"Because I may leave at any time. I don't want to start a commitment that I can't keep."

Thad squirmed in his seat and frowned, catching Helen's attention again. "You all right?" she asked.

"I know I've been doing my laundry correctly, but my pants keep shrinking."

"Your pants aren't shrinking, Thad," Helen grinned, trying not to laugh. For all of his picking on Bart for being so obtuse, there were occasional moments where Bart seemed to catch on a little faster. Not that she would tell Thad that, of course. "You're just growing. Stand up." When he obliged, Helen crossed her arms and stepped close. They now stood eye to eye, even though Thad was not wearing shoes and Helen stood on modest heels. "See? With the way you two eat, I would be worried if you weren't getting taller."

Thad seemed genuinely surprised at this development. He stared down at his feet, which didn't seem as big as they used to be. "Oh."

She patted his blond hair. "Remember to watch your head and try not to laugh at Bart when he doesn't, even though it _is_ funny." She took a step backwards and looked around the room. "Speaking of, where is he?"

"At Carol's," Thad answered, "He's staying there for dinner tonight."

Bart's injuries had long since healed, much to his relief. He had started to wonder if there was something wrong with him. Helen assured him that he healed at a normal rate, but how was he to know otherwise? Carol set a washed and peeled white onion on the cutting board in front of him. "This is ready to chop up," she told him.

As he diced the onion, his eyes began to sting and water. Blinking back tears, he chopped as fast as he could without slicing his fingers. Sliding the knife down the board over the pan that he had recently cooked bacon in, he dumped the onion in. "This onion is nasty," he remarked as he turned the range back on, "I'm gonna get these cooked before they blind me." He added the celery he had chopped up earlier to the pan.

"I'll do that. You mash up the potatoes and carrots." Noticing his tearing eyes, she snickered. "Are you okay?"

"Not fast enough for onion anymore, but I'm okay," he answered, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, "I just want my goggles."

Carol grinned teasingly, "So, the goggles actually do something?"

"Yes! Goggles are awesome! Blind speedsters can't run!"

Carol frantically hushed him. "My little sister is still in the house!"

Bart cringed and looked over his shoulder, expecting to see Casey already standing there. "Sorry."

"How half of Manchester _doesn't_ know, I can't figure out." Behind her glasses, she blinked against the onion's sting. "Wow, you weren't kidding. This onion is strong."

"At least Eddie's off my case," Bart remarked as he mashed the cooked potatoes and carrots, "That was a close one."

"Instead, he's spreading the rumor that Impulse is dead. It's open season in Manchester now."

"That's okay. Impulse will be back as soon as the Speed Force is and, if things get really bad before then, I'll call for help." He blew a thick lock of hair away from his eyes. When that failed to move it out of the way, he reached up and tucked it behind his ear. "I think I need to cut my hair back or something. It's always getting in my face now."

"Well, you're not using supersonic speeds for styling anymore." She ran her fingers through the chestnut mane. "And if you do cut it short, I'm going to hurt you." Carol pecked a kiss on his cheek and went back to sauting the onions and celery.

It was then that Casey stepped into the kitchen. The preteen wrinkled her nose at the pair. "You're not making out in here, are you?"

"No," Carol answered sharply, "And don't grab any snacks. You can wait. We're making dinner right now."

Casey stuck her tongue out at her older sister and left the kitchen. Bart raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why can't she have a snack, if she's hungry?"

"Because she'll just fill up on junk, instead of this dinner that we're spending so much time making." Carol blasted a hard sigh. "Sometimes, I hate having to be the mom. Casey gets mad at me a lot for it and I don't like fighting with her. She fights with Bobby, too. My brother gets tired of it pretty quick and just kinda shuts it out. So, I have to fight with Casey more." She added the onions and celery to the pot of mashed potatoes and carrots. "I wish my parents were still alive. Maybe we would all get along better, then."

Bart measured out the milk according the recipe he had read earlier and added it to the pot. "Maybe, maybe not. My family's kinda the same. If Thad and I weren't taken away, would he still be a raging jerk? Sometimes, I wonder if that's just him."

"I guess so." Carol stirred the soup until the milk was mixed in. "Hopefully, Casey's just in a phase and she'll grow out of it." Picking up the waiting biscuit recipe, she scanned through the ingredients list. "Baking powder? Do we even have any?" She searched through the cupboards until she found the canister. "Great. Thanks, Bobby. You had to put it on the top shelf." Planting a hand on the counter and standing on her toes, she reached up with her other hand and brushed the canister with her fingertips. Bart approached and reached up, grabbing the container and handing it to her. "Thanks," Carol automatically replied. She gave him a double take and grinned. "You know, when Impulse comes back, people are going to be surprised. He's got a reputation for being a zippy little guy."

Bart's brows knitted as he tried to figure out what Carol was talking about. "But I am. Well, I'm not so zippy right now."

"A zippy _little_ guy," Carol repeated, gesturing a height shorter than hers with her free hand.

His eyes brightened with understanding. "Oh! Heh, right. Yeah, I guess so." He shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets. "I'm not _that_ much bigger."

"Can you still fit into your suit?"

Bart shrugged again. "It's stretchy."

He suddenly felt dizzy and he braced against the counter. Blinking, he realized that Carol was gripping his shoulders. He winced at her fingernails digging into his skin.

"Bart?" She didn't let go of him until he regained his balance and looked around the kitchen. "Your _eyes_ were _glowing_."

"_What_?" He wrapped his hands around Carol's wrists. "They were?"

She nodded and grimaced. "They were glowing yellow. So were your veins. It was a little freaky looking."

Bart pulled his hands away and examined them. They looked normal now, but he tried to imagine what it would look like to have glowing veins. "Ew. That's never happened before."

"You were tranced out for a minute, too," Carol informed him, "That scared me."

"I don't remember. Heh. I guess I really was tranced." He tried to keep the matter light, but he could feel that something wasn't right. "I hope my connection to the Speed Force was trying to restart. If it was, it didn't work."

In Helen's house, Thad turned off the water in the bathroom sink, suddenly aware of a prickling sensation dancing up his spine. All of the little hairs on his arms stood on end, perplexing him. He wasn't cold, so that couldn't be the cause. This seemed more like an odd case of static buildup, which still didn't make any sense to him. Why would there be an increase in electrical charge while he was washing his hands? He looked at his reflection to see if his hair was standing on end.

It wasn't, but the golden glow from his eyes startled him and he jerked a couple of steps back. In the mirror, the glow changed color to a vibrant violet and it felt as if ants were crawling all over his skin. A man's deep voice spoke loud and clear within his ears. "Let's see if this one will do."

In the next instant, Thad found himself lying on a quiet residential street that he did not recognize. His hands and knees complained sharply to him, warning him about the bloody mess he was going to find. Carefully climbing to his feet, he tried to get a bearing on his location. Kansas license plates on the parked cars gave him one clue, which was better than no clues at all. Now, he just needed to narrow it down to a city.

Picking a direction, he strode along the sidewalk, ignoring his injuries and taking note that his speed was gone. Obviously, it had briefly returned, but there was something unsettling about how it did so. After a couple of miles, he finally found a strip mall. Stepping into a minimart, he asked the nearest clerk what city he was in.

"Keystone," she answered, "Do you need help?"

"No, I'm fine." Thad sighed and recanted, "Can you show me on a map where this is?"

The clerk pulled a map off of the display stand nearby and pointed out to him where her shop was. Soon, he was back on the sidewalks and navigating the sprawling city. It took an hour, by his best guess, for him to finally find the house with the mailbox reading "Garrick" outside.

Thad lifted his hand to knock on the door, but it opened before he could touch it. Jay Garrick's wife, Joan, stared at him in surprise. The boy's yellow eyes gave her the clue she needed about his identity. "Jay! It's Bart's brother!"

Thad grimaced at the tag, swallowing down the sudden flare of rage that clenched his fists. He was not going to beat up an old lady! He could control himself! Joan gasped when she saw the dried blood crusting over his knees. "Come on in," she invited while putting a hand on his shoulder to guide him inside, "Let's get you cleaned up. How did you get here? Aren't you supposed to be in Alabama?"

Once inside, Joan set aside her purse and shrugged off her jacket. "Wait here, dear. I'm getting my first aid kit."

Nodding absently, Thad stared at Jay. He looked much like a man at his advanced age would. Flashbacks to Max's rapid deterioration ran through the boy's mind. A rare, but familiar, feeling of dread dredged up from his gut. "_Jay_?"

The elderly man stood up from his chair, displaying his good health and vibrant spirits with his movements. "It's all right, son. I'm fine. I still have plenty of years left in me."

Joan returned with her trusty kit in hand. "Come on to the kitchen and you can tell us all about how you made the trip here."

While Joan cleaned and bandaged his wounds, Thad recounted his last memories in Manchester. "And then I was laying on the street here in Keystone."

Jay nodded gravely to the story. "That voice talking to you before you blacked out is what worries me the most about this. Did you recognize the voice at all?"

Thad shook his head, "No, nothing positive." He paused and thought it over again. "There was something familiar, but I can't pinpoint it."

"Hmm," Jay mused to himself, "After I call Helen and let her know what happened, I'm going to call Wally to take Thad back home."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Joan asked, "What if his speed comes back and disappears again? That's always so disorienting to you and, from what I've heard, to Wally too. I don't want Wally to be behind the wheel when that happens."

"I think we can risk it," Jay replied, "I'm betting that someone on the other side of the force was trying to possess Thad here. I can only think of two people that would do that. In either case, I want Wally to be nearby if it returns."

Thad snapped around to face Jay. "What?! Are you sprocking kidding me? Possession?"

"Like what happened to Max," Jay reminded, "You've become a target. My guess is that whoever wants to take a ride in your skin also wants to use your reputation to disguise the hijacking."

Thad rolled his eyes and curled his lip in disgust. "Right, I'm the _evil_ twin."

Later that evening, Wally arrived at the Garrick house. Standing in the living room with his hands in the pockets of his jacket, he eyed Thad. "Well, this is going to be fun. It's a good thing I don't have work tomorrow."

Thad crossed his arms and glowered at Wally. "The sooner we leave, the sooner I return home."

"Oh, yeah. Tons of fun. I don't know which would be worse," Wally remarked, "Eleven hours cooped up with Captain Cranky here, or _Bart_."

Thad's scowl darkened. "Why can't you put me on a plane and have Helen pick me up in Birmingham?"

It was Wally who answered first. "Because you're a minor and I would have to fly with you. Linda did some searching and last minute tickets aren't cheap. On top of that, the earliest flight you could get departs at six in the morning tomorrow. Personally, I'd rather owe the Green Lantern some beer and fancy pencils for shuttling you, but he's out of the solar system. So, road trip it is."

Joan handed Wally a small paper bag. "Here, just in case you get hungry."

After saying their goodbyes, Wally and Thad left the house. Thad was mindful about his head as he ducked into the car. As they left Keystone City, Wally's voice rose over the sound of the engine and the road. "Have you and Bart been hearing hums that aren't really there, too?"

"Yes," Thad answered.

"I've been talking to S.T.A.R Labs, but they still haven't figured it out. I don't know how many tests I went through, but it hasn't really helped." When Thad didn't say anything in return, Wally changed the subject, "How have you and Bart been doing?"

"Fine."

Wally waited for anything else, but when Thad remained quiet, he sighed. "Yep. Lots of fun." He turned up the radio and decided to just focus on the road.

Four hours into the trip, Wally pulled into a gas station with a fast food restaurant next to it. He yawned and looked at the restaurant. "I hope their coffee is okay."

"If you're tired, I can drive for a while," Thad offered, "I don't want to die because you fell asleep on the road."

Wally frowned at that. "Do you even know how to drive?"

Thad pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and opened it to the Alabama-issued learner license. "Yes. I took the learner's test and Helen has been giving me and Bart lessons. We'll be applying for our graduated licenses in due time."

"Whoa," Wally blurted, "Already?"

"I'm sixteen," Thad bluntly reminded, "And Bart's identification papers list him as that age, as well. We are certainly eligible."

"Well, there's a scary thought," remarked Wally, "Bart behind the wheel."

Thad snorted and rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it."

A couple of hours later, Thad relaxed behind the wheel. He glanced askance at Wally, who was sleeping with his head propped against the passenger window. Seeing that there was little traffic on this particular stretch of highway, he jerked the wheel and sharply swerved on the road. Wally snapped awake in a panic. "_What?!_" Then he saw Thad's amused smirk. "You _are_ a jerk, you know that?"

After a while, Wally drifted to sleep again, leaving Thad to continue driving along the highway. As he drove, he tried to spot familiar landmarks from when he used to run across the countryside. Halfway through Arkansas, a golden glow to his right caught his attention. He was certain that he didn't pass any lights along the dark road. Wally's eyes were glowing brightly and tendrils of lightning sparked around them. The light quickly shifted to a brilliant violet. Thad's heart pounded hard in his chest and he slammed on the brakes. Pulling over, he stopped the car.

Wally turned to Thad with a cruel smile on his face. "Hello, again."


	7. Legacy

Disclaimer: DC owns the DCU. Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo.

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_Reset!: Blackout - Chapter Seven: Legacy_

Thad didn't have enough time to blink before he felt Wally's hands clamp down on his throat. At first, he thought the rush he felt was adrenaline, but then the hum of his vibrating molecules filled his ears and he slipped out of the murderous grasp. Pushing through the car door, Thad put his feet on the pavement. Now, it was Thad's turn to smile as he reveled in the restoration of his world.

"You're Rival," he stated to being under Wally's skin.

"Aren't you the smart one?" Rival sneered, "You were a little small. I had to throw you back. This one suits me much better."

Thoughts blazed through Thad's mind in a rapid-fire sequence of review and extrapolate. Rival's nemesis was Jay. The last time Rival showed up, he aimed to kill Jay using Max's body as a host. Now that Max was gone, it was likely that Rival now sought to use Wally's body for the same purpose. However, it seemed that Rival's hit list had grown since their last encounter. This fight was going to be more than a simple sparring match.

Thad darted away from the road, leaving a gust of wind in his wake. There was no need to be seen by passing eyes. Just as he predicted, Rival followed after him. The younger speedster had to push as hard as he could to stay out of arm's reach until he arrived at more favorable terrain just north of Manchester. He had no idea where Kon was at the moment and there was no time to wait for him to show up and apply his telekinetic trap. His best hope for any real leverage was that Bart would stumble upon them. He didn't want to try calculating the chances of that happening.

A strike to his back sent him flying forward and knocked the wind out of him. Thad rolled and kicked out, expecting Rival to be within range. He was not disappointed as his feet connected solidly with one knee. He smirked with the realization that Wally was going to be feeling that when this was over. Popping back onto his feet, he swung at Rival, connecting solidly with the stolen face. Rival staggered back a step, and then grabbed Thad's hair and slammed a hard punch to his gut. Thad felt his knees buckle, but he did not drop. He had been hit by Bart before and thought that he was tough enough to take the punishment of this fight, but Wally's body had far more mass and muscle. He gasped for breath. Rival took advantage of that pause to hammer his fists down over the back of Thad's head. The next Thad knew, damp grass and hard earth pressed against his cheek.

He tried to push himself up, but a boot stomping down on his back slammed him back down. A burst of fury blazed through him, tunneling his vision and numbing his pain. Thad made himself intangible and sank into the earth to escape the next pounding. Crawling through the dark, suffocating dirt, he popped up behind Rival and landed a solid kick to one of his kidneys.

The attack did not have the expected result of slowing Rival. He spun around and launched a flurry of strikes at Thad. Again, the younger speedster hit the ground. The next thing he knew, a familiar voice behind called out, Get up, Thad!"

Thad shot to his feet and twisted around, despite the flare of pain. "_Max?!_" Was he hallucinating?

Max Mercury had Rival in joint lock, struggling all the while to maintain control. Despite his injuries, Thad smiled. He moved in for the finishing blows, but a hand gripped his arm and pulled him back. Turning his head, he saw Bart beside him. The golden glow and errant sparks of lightning from Bart's eyes brought him to a stop.

Max was having difficulty restraining Rival without injuring Wally. "Barry! Now!"

Bart nodded and pressed his palms against Wally's chest. "You're coming with me."

Rival screamed as the gold lightning pulled the violet energy out through Wally's skin. It struck Thad as so discordant, that he covered his ears to block it out. That dampened the sound of Wally's voice, but not the disturbing hum that Thad felt in his bones. Gritting his teeth, he forced his eyes open to watch with a sort of double vision. He could see the physical forms of Wally and Bart, but over them the ghostly figures of two other men battled. He had to wonder if he was in the grip of a concussion. Soon, the discordant scream became so unbearable that Max called for a stop. Rival slumped in Max's grip and Barry braced his borrowed hands against his knees.

Max did not slacken his grip on Rival. "Barry? Are you still there?"

Bart's head nodded. "It was worth a try, Max, but I can't pull him out from here, either." Barry squirmed uncomfortably in Bart's skin. "I don't like this. Even with permission, it doesn't feel right."

Thad's eyes widened to stare at the possessed Bart. "Barry... Allen? Bart's, _our_, grandfather?" He turned to Max, "What is this?"

"I'll explain the details later," Max replied, "Rival won't stay down for long and we need a way to extract and contain him."

The serious solemnity on Bart's face was foreign. "Bringing Wally into the Speed Force itself is risky. It could take him." He shook his head. "It's not his time."

"We don't have much of a choice," Max countered, "Wally's strong and he has Linda. He has a chance."

Thad squeezed his eyes shut against the dizziness that overcame him and clenched his fists in his hair. His aching brain was refusing to cooperate with him. Hypothesis after hypothesis ran in jagged leaps in his mind as he tried to put the pieces together. "Was Rival behind our getting cut off from the Speed Force?"

It was Barry who answered with Bart's voice, "Yes and no. Max and I cut it off to keep him from getting out."

"If you put him back in, you'll just have to cut us off again," Thad deduced, "We'll be back where we started. No. I don't want to keep living like that. There has to be another solution."

Max was still struggling with Rival. "If you have any better ideas, make it quick!"

"Contain him here," Thad started, "Draw him out of Wally and contain him here. Mechanically."

"Like a battery?" Barry asked. His borrowed voice threatened to crack and he coughed against it.

The rest of the plan started to fall into place for Thad. "Yes! Exactly!"

"Hold Rival here," Barry told Max, "I'll help with the machine."

Thad lead the way back to Helen's garage in Manchester, where he cleared off his workbench and set a large stack of paper on it. Using their combined scientific knowledge, Thad and Barry developed the device that would capture Rival in detail. Not a single spoken word passed between them as they drew and refined their plan on sheet after sheet of paper. Instead, rapidly written notes and diagrams served as their primary means of communication. Thad went as far as to write out where to obtain the supplies and materials and who would work on what part of the machine. It wasn't until they were assembling the device near where Max was struggling with Rival that they spoke.

"Why did you possess Bart?" Thad asked, "Why didn't you come out like Max did?"

Barry pushed up the dark lensed welding goggles to examine his handiwork. "Max still has his body. I don't. I'm dead. I exist only as energy now." He picked up the welder and moved to another part of the machine. "It's not like I can magically recreate my flesh and blood body out of the essence of going fast," he remarked with a wry grin, "As much as I would like to."

"Wally can make his pants out of _goes fast_, as Bart would say, although I don't understand how."

"He does?" Barry paused for a moment, thinking it over. "I didn't know that. Wow. How is that possible?"

Thad raised an eyebrow. "So, you're not watching us from Speed Force?"

"No. All I know is when you're using a great deal of energy," Barry answered as he slipped the welding goggles back over his eyes. "Besides, even if I could watch, I wouldn't want to." He sheepishly grinned, "People should be allowed their privacy."

"So, you don't know about what I-we've done?"

"I know what Max has told me," Barry answered. The bright light of the welder blazed as he fused two sections of the machine's frame together. "And I know that you managed to escape the storm. That had to have been a very difficult time for you. To have your mind in so much disarray and still find the focus to survive... I'm not sure I would have made it, if I were in the same situation."

"You saw that?"

"You were in the Speed Force. It was a little hard not to."

"You saw that I almost killed Max and Bart?"

Barry nodded, "But you didn't."

"That was what... my other grandfather wanted me to do," Thad explained, "He said that was the Thawne legacy. I thought I had to do it."

"There's been a lot of talk about you kids getting hung up on legacies lately," Barry remarked as he put away the welder and goggles. "Max told me about Wally's troubles too. Even Bart might get caught up in it. We've been a little worried about what it all might lead to." He started helping Thad with the last of the wiring. "Legacies are more than a name and costume," Barry continued, "I don't want the future generations to get locked down in hidebound traditions and stuck running the same races over and over again. I don't want you to become people you aren't. What I _do_ want is for all of you to open new doors for yourselves and to lift the generations that come after you to new frontiers. You should be free to make your own legacies." He settled into a crouch over a junction box. As he made the last few connections, he said, "Life passes too quickly. Live it so you don't have any regrets."

Thad couldn't help but recall all of the mistakes he had made. "Do you have any regrets?"

Barry sighed and closed the junction box. "I won't be there to grow old with Iris." He stood and brushed off the dust from his borrowed knees. "But, she's still alive. That's worth it."

"You can't be near here when I activate the machine," Thad warned in a sudden change of subject, "I don't think you want to spend forever stuck in a jar with Rival."

"I left the bad roommate phase when I graduated college," Barry remarked, "I'm not about to go back to it. I'll put Bart back where I found him after I tell Max that you're ready." Tensing to run, he added over his shoulder, "Good luck."

Max brought Rival to the machine and quickly knocked him out again. He laid him on the metal plate as Thad indicated. Once Rival was in place, Thad raced away from the machine, signaling to Max to follow him. No speedster would want to be nearby when it activated. Once he was certain he was at a safe distance, he stopped and held out the remote control. As soon as Max stopped beside him, he pressed the button. A simple click heralded an electric lightshow. Lightning crackled and arced around the machine as it was drawn into the device. A single massive burst erupted from Wally's body and into the machine. After that, only the hum of the machine told Thad that it was still working. He clicked the remote again to shut the machine down.

Max dashed to Wally and helped him to his feet. Thad examined the containment unit and grinned. A single glowing LED was all that indicated that the unit was occupied. Thad tapped on the surface of the unit. "I wonder how long you'll last in there?" he quietly asked Rival, "I suppose we'll find out."

Wally swayed and grimaced. "I feel like I've been trampled by a herd of elephants," he groaned. Spotting the blue gloves that held him up, he turned to see whom they belonged to. "Max?" His green eyes finally settled on Thad's machine. "What is that?"

Max grinned. "I'll explain everything once you get home. Can you run?"

Wally shook his head. "My speed's not back yet. Even if it was, I wouldn't be running very fast."

Max frowned towards Thad. The blond boy shrugged and crossed his arms. "His speed should recover on its own, if he still has a connection to the Speed Force."

"Do you?" Max asked Wally.

Wally closed his eyes for a moment, and then nodded, "Yeah. I think so. It's a little faint right now, but it's there."

"I'll take you home, then." Max turned to Thad. "I'll ask Jay to have someone from the JSA pick up the device. Stay with it until then."

Thad nodded and lay down on the ground. He squeezed his eyes shut against the throbbing ache in his skull.

Some time later, Bart heard the door to the garage open and shot to his feet. "Thad? Is your speed back too?"

Bart spotted Max and a bright smile beamed on his face. Tackling Max with a hug, he nearly knocked the older man down. "Max! MaxMaxMaxMax! You're back! You got out of the Speed Force! How'd you do that? That's awesome! I missed you so much! Your room is starting to smell weird because you haven't been in there for so long and it's leaking into the hallway!"

Max was starting to run out of breath thanks to Bart's squeeze. Patting the boy's back frantically, he gasped, "Okay! Okay! Let go and I'll tell you everything!"

Bart loosened his grip. "And your fishing stuff is starting to get all dusty and I've been wanting to make it undusty, but you told me not to touch it!" Behind him, Thad was quietly facepalming.

"Let's go sit down first," Max suggested, "I'm going to need a little coffee before I begin. Is Helen in bed still?"

Bart nodded, "Do you want me to wake her up?"

"No, let her sleep. I can repeat all of this after she gets up."

In the morning, Bart found Carol alone outside her house. She held a full garbage bag in her hand. Grinning from ear to ear in the rain, he stood in front of her. "Guess what! My speed came back and Max came back and Rival's in a jar, so he won't possess anyone anymore! Wanna go out? You wanna get yakisoba? Or a burrito? Ooh! I know! Let's go get..." His voice trailed off as he realized that she was still in the process of blinking. His shoulders slumped and he watched her eyes slowly open again. "You didn't get any of that, huh? That's okay. I can start it over for you." He watched every little movement she made as she reacted to discovering him standing in front of her.

"I am normal, it's the rest of the world that's weird," Bart quietly repeated to himself as he waited for her to adjust to his presence. The first syllable of his name started to emerge from her lips.

Finally, she said, "Bart! Your speed is back!"

He nodded slowly, falling back into old habits. "And Max is too. We won't have to worry about Rival any more."

"That's great! How is Max?"

"He's fine," Bart answered.

The raindrops hung in the air over Manchester like thousands of tiny gems catching the light. Bart wished that he could show it to her. It wasn't fair that she could show him the mesmerizing fall of the rain, but he couldn't show her his world. Not even a picture could do it justice.

He returned to Helen's house, where he found Thad standing in the yard with Dox. Bart couldn't tell yet if Dox was just sniffing around, playing, or looking for a place to make a puddle. Thad's unhindered movements looked out of place as he approached Bart. "This is how it's supposed to be," he said to his darker haired twin.

"It's kinda lonely," Bart admitted, "I forgot what it was like to have to wait for Carol."

Thad seemed surprised at that. "Oh?"

"It was nice to have her at my speed."

"I see."

The boys went back inside the house after Dox was done. The phone started to ring and they raced for it, breaking Helen's rule about superspeed in the house in doing so. It was Thad who picked it up first. "Hello?"

"This is Wally," the voice on the other side answered, "Which one is this?"

"Thad."

"What the hell did you do to me?!" Wally demanded loud enough for Bart and Max to hear, "I've been peeing blood!"

Thad's eyed widened and he started to giggle, which quickly turned into ripsaw maniacal laughter.

Bart sighed to Max and shrugged. "You know how it is; two steps forward, one step back. He's getting better, though. He really is."

Max absently nodded and reached out to put a hand on Thad's shoulder. "You really shouldn't laugh about that." He took the phone away from the boy.

"I know," Thad managed to say as he wound down, "But it makes the concussion he gave me worth it."

Max listened to Wally. "Hospital trip? Well, that's to be expected after a fight like that and a slower healing speed. If it's expected to clear up in a day or so, then that's fine." There was a pause, and then Max added. "That reminds me, Wally, there's something Barry wanted to tell you. I'll come up there and we can talk."

After Max left, Thad remarked, "For a dead man, Barry Allen was rather chatty. He had plenty to say to me."

"So, you got to talk to Grandpa?" Bart sat on the floor in front of the couch settled his chin on his knees. "Lucky."

Thad crouched down next to Bart and rubbed Dox's ears. "You don't remember any of it?"

Bart shook his head. "Nope."

"I think there's a lot he wanted to say to you and Wally, but we didn't have the time. I've been thinking a lot about what he said. Obviously, I got my intelligence from both of our grandfathers. Pity that it means that there wasn't any left for you."

Bart sighed and tucked his head against his crossed arms. Thad kept rubbing Dox's ears. "Do you want to hear what he said?"

Jerking his head up, Bart nodded. "You would do that?"

"What kind of evil twin do you think I am?" Thad huffed in mock offense, "I only beat you up and ridicule your intelligence, not withhold precious words of wisdom that can be thrown in Wally's face whenever he gets his tights in a wad about you not being the perfect little sidekick." He treated Bart to a wicked grin. "Legacies are more than a name and costume."

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A/N: Yay! Arc done! Reset is now archived at my journal, which you can find with the homepage link on my profile. Thanks for reading!


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